Anthony Raneri of Bayside: 'Playing alone brings on this kind of nervous energy that's a lot of fun to try and defeat'

Anthony Raneri of Bayside is performing with Dustin Kensrue of Thrice, Chris Conley of Saves The Day, Ace Enders of the Early November and Evan Weiss of Into It. Over It. tonight at Yost Theater in Santa Ana.

The tour coincides with the release of Raneri's debut solo EP, New Cathedrals, and we talked to Raneri about going solo for the Where's the Band? tour.

OC Weekly:Do you feel naked without a band backing you?Anthony Raneri: At first, I did but I got used to it. Playing alone brings on this kind of nervous energy that's a lot of fun to try and defeat.

On other Where's the Band concerts you've done NOFX covers and Christmas songs with the other artists on the bill. What are you guys covering this time?We've been messing around with a couple of different things. Me, Matt Pryor, and Ace Enders have been doing a pretty cool version of Rainbow Connection.

What's the appeal of performing acoustic versions of your songs? For me, it's fun because all of the songs were written that way. I write everything on an acoustic guitar because I want to make sure that the songs can hold up with just chords and the vocal without any bells and whistles. It's nice to strip them back down to how they were written. It makes for a great sing a long at the shows too.

What's your best WTB experience?It would be hard to pick one. I really enjoy doing collaborations with everyone.